Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!

Tried searching for various keywords and didn't get my question answered.

So....

I found an offroad bike that would be a good candidate to make street legal. The guy bought it used and only got a bill of sale. It may not have ever been registered or at least registered in this state. Not sure.

It *sounds* like I may be able to get a bonded title for it as an offroad bike and then go through the motions to make it street legal. Anyone have any experience in this? How much heartache am I looking at?

OR, isthere a way to go directly from off-road bike with only a bill of sale to being registered (street legal) in my name?

If it is old enough you can get a bonded title, can't remember what the cut-off age is. There would be a title or MSO (Manufacturer's Statement of Origin) somewhere even if it is not in Texas, and that would show the name of the legal owner of that bike. It may be the guy that sold it to the guy you bought it from, or someone else earlier in the bike's life.

There are no shortcuts I am sorry to say. You will have to do the documents and pay the fees to get where you want to go with that bike. Good luck in the process, keep encouraged, and have fun on that bike when all is said and done.

Call this place ---> Lawrence Auto Title 800-352-2788. They will send you paperwork to fill out. Then they go down to the title office in Austin and petition for a title, and then they will get a rejection from the state. If a previuos owner shows up on the VIN, they will send a letter to him/her and say that you are trying to title the bike and thay have xx days to protest it. (They won't since you have a bill of sale.) Then the title company will contact an insurance compnay to issue a bond. Once they do that, they will send you all of the paperwork to go down to the title office and pay your taxes and register it.

The fees you can expect will be slightly different than what I paid because the insurance bond is based on the value of my 2000 RC51.

Well, now you know more than you did before... so it is all good anyway.

Might be just as well... figure up what you would have spent on the extra fees involved in the bond, then add on the cost of conversion to make it street legal. Add these to what you would have paid and I think you will find that you can buy one already ready to go with a clear title. Dual sport machines come up for sale all the time here and on craigslist.

Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)